


mind gone running

by onefootonego (startingXI), traceable



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 03:03:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11500431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startingXI/pseuds/onefootonego, https://archiveofourown.org/users/traceable/pseuds/traceable
Summary: it starts with the observation that trini has been aware of since the moment they met.“i think your daemon has a problem with me.”(power rangers (2017)/his dark materials)





	mind gone running

**Author's Note:**

> it all started with a message that said: 'don't think about a power rangers/his dark materials au where...' and ended with alex shouting: "THAT IS THE MOST HURT"
> 
> so we're here to lull you into a false sense of fluff.

*

 

it starts with the observation that trini has been aware of since the moment they met. 

“i think your daemon has a problem with me.”

trini looks away from where she’s piling rubble into dumpster to where alma is perched a short distance away, surveying them curiously. 

trini looks back at kimberly, squinting at her figure, backlit by the sun. “yeah, he does. it’s called /surprise we’re cliff jumping now/.”

as if he’s aware that trini is talking about him alma stares at kimberly in a deadset unimpressed expression. 

“i said sorry about that.” kimberly murmurs. it’s not the same huffed tone that kimberly usually responds to accusations of her punching ty fleming’s tooth out which means kimberly is actually sorry. trini knows that. it’s just fun to watch alma bristle at kimberly when he thinks that trini taking her side. 

trini snorts and alma turns his back on them both, his purring sounding more like a growl as he feigns disinterest. it’s a difficult task since trini can feel how much being out here is testing him. especially with kimberly’s daemon, rami, swooping down from the sky in intervals to pester him.

there’s no apology coming from rami that’s for sure.

“i know that,” trini says with a smirk “and you know that you apologised. but alma is,” trini glances back in alma’s direction, “currently unaware.” 

“currently unaware?” kim asks with a raised eyebrow, the genuine apology still clear in her eyes “that makes no sense.” 

“you tell him that.” trini challenges, alma who is still pretending that there is something very interesting happening in the street, whilst actually keeping a keen eye on where rami is perched. 

kim looks for a moment like she’s about to say something in alma’s direction when jason, and just behind him lumbering along, his daemon glaucus “there’s a truck in from the red cross,” he gestures vaguely in a direction “mr. stuart wants us to come help.” 

a couple of the other kids from their detention class have to move out of the way as jason’s bear daemon tries to shuffle past. trini frowns slightly at the hunched walk glaucus is making on all fours to get past, trying to be as small as a grizzly can be, without touching people. 

unfortunately by their expressions, twisted grimaces, glaucus isn’t completely successful in not touching anyone.

the familiarity sends a shiver down trini’s spine and the once disinterested alma pads over to her side. 

“remember when we could just pass notes across a classroom?” kimberly sighs. “and pretend to do our homework. i miss that kind of detention.”

“i don’t know,” comes zacks voice from the other end of the alley, walking towards them annie at his side “that was so boring.” 

“and cleaning up angel grove is somehow the most thrilling work you’ve ever done?” kimberly counters, rami coming down to land on her shoulder. 

‘well technically we made the mess.’ billy pipes up from where he’s gathering a large, probably unnecessary amount of broken electrical cables. ‘would you leave everything lying around at home if you broke something?’

trini looks at him curiously and alma scoffs. /he’s not going to throw those cables away. does that count as stealing?/

trini pushes alma with her leg. ‘shut up.’

her lynx bristles and hits her tail against trini’s leg in retaliation. 

“billy’s right.” jason claps his hands together like it’s going to motivate them more. like they aren’t standing in a crater where the road used to be were with twenty other kids in saturday detention helping workers move out rubble so work can start on the road again. “this is about helping angel grove get back on it’s feet.”

trini hears kimberly turn to rami, who nudges his beak into her cheek, and mutter; “yeah well we saved their asses.”

it’s not the most motivating speech anyone’s ever had, but then mr. stuart is rounding the corner and clapping his hands saying “alright everyone,” and trini sighs, catching kimberly’s eye who seems just as *thrilled* as trini is “divide into groups of three and come over to the truck. we’ll be unloading the pallets here and delivering them to their final destination.”

there’s a communal groan from the crowd of detention students as they collectively remember the last time they spent all morning running boxes through the ruins. there are limited forklifts that can make the journey and with the state of the roads a lot of cars still can’t make it through. hence the people power. 

“groups of three!” mr. stuart emphasises, his blue jay daemon twittering above his head like some cartoon animal “the sooner the truck is unloaded and delivered the sooner we can all go home.” 

“does that mean you’re going to help us deliver the pallets?” zack calls from the back of the crowd. 

mr. stuart fumbles for a moment before saying “i will be here, making sure the boxes will end up in the right places.” 

another collective grumble from the amassed students, but they’re more or less divided into groups of three and the first group shuffles forward to take a manual pallet jack and their delivery location. 

trini glances over to zack, who is sitting on the hood of a car swinging his legs, with annie panting as if she’s laughing at all of them. annie keeps looking around and zack looks like he’s taking pleasure in freaking out some of the volunteers with his large, goofy looking hyena chilling with him.

alma’s chest begins to rumble in annoyance. /if billy had driven faster we’d have gotten hit by that train before he could have showed up and we’d never have to see him./

“that was just unnecessarily mean.”

/he’s not helping!/ alma spits. 

“you feeling okay?”

kimberly is to her side now, blocking the view of zack but giving trini no other option that to stare at her. rami, her kestrel, is hiding just underneath her short hair on her shoulder giving trini his own stare back. 

“huh?”

kimberly gestures down to alma. “what’s got you all riled up?”

having a part of your soul as a physical, walking, talking being means it’s hard to be closed off. especially when alma can’t keep his cool.

“nothing just.” she glances down at alma and encourages him to walk behind her. “if -everyone- was pitching in then this would be done a lot faster.”

kimberly looks back and sees what trini sees and rolls her eyes. “he’s waiting for a text from his mom i think. he’ll pitch in after that.”

alma trots forward with his head down and trini feels both their guilt for calling him out. 

the way the groups end up, it’s trini, kimberly and zack in a group and, unfortunately, a full pallet headed straight for the other end of town - at the community centre. 

it’s a long walk over broken road and upended sidewalk, but away from the truck and the hub of volunteers eager to help out, it’s a little bit easier for trini to breathe. alma isn’t pressed as close to her legs, “they gave us a map.” Kim deadpans, “like we’re going to get lost getting to the community centre. there’s signs for it everywhere.” 

zack laughs and annie echoes it. “yeah and one of us has a great sense of direction so -”

/well that bird has to be good for something/ alma mutters.

trini isn’t usually caught off guard by alma’s words but she ends up struggling to contain her laughter until they have to stop to clear through some abandoned cars. 

trini catches zack checking out the surrounding area before he just kicks the front of the car and it shift, a growing of sheering metal on metal ringing in all their ears. zack goes through a path of parked cars doing the same to each. kim glances trini’s way as if to say 

‘see, helping.’ 

trini rolls her eyes, but has to admit at least the path is now wide enough for the pallet. 

alma isn’t as impressed. /show off/

“why are you like this?” trini looks down at her daemon.

/why are -you- like this?/ alma turns his head and really trini has no comeback to that. 

and if the argument wasn’t already won they both hear the low tone of rami from the sky /tad unnecessary/.

alma looks back at trini has if to say; someone gets it.

the surprising truce between rami and alma’s opinions however is short lived for in the next moment rami is fluttering down and trying to perch on alma’s back.

alma is having none that and turns, snapping in rami’s direction with no real malice, just clear annoyance. 

trini is about to point out this interaction but kimberly is suddenly too busy to notice with the way she loops and tugs on a short end of trini’s hair with hinted affection. “come on we’re moving.”

trini is left momentarily stunned enough for alma to trot past, triumphant in dislodging rami, and kick her while she’s down with; /gay./

“you’re the one who let him sit on you.” trini retorts. 

/i did not./ alma replies hotly, /as if i would./ 

trini smirks, deciding against mentioning that one night a few weeks ago where she spied alma and rami sleeping on the floor during a movie marathon at billy’s house. honest to god cuddling was the teasing phrase that zack reminded them of. both trini and alma had elected to ignore it until kimberly admitted to thinking it was sweet that they were getting along.

now it just seems like an appropriate blackmail source, good thing there’s the photo evidence to prove it, somewhere on kim’s phone. 

“come on,” zack says from somewhere in front of them “if we time it right by the time we get back the volunteers will have taken the rest of the pallets.” 

“was that meant to hurry us, or slow us down?” kimberly asks. rami circles around them and perches on the top of the pallet. “hey lazy.”

zack just shrugs, still walking forward, kicking football sized chunks of rubble down the street, watching as they skitter and bounce.

alma continues to walk alongside trini. /oh look at me kicking huge rocks. no one would suspect that i’m a power ranger./

trini snorts and annie at least halfway glances back at them, not quite delivering on the glare. they spend the next hour walking the three quarters of a mile to the community centre. the road so trashed, even after volunteers have gone through clearing and cleaning as much as they can. there’s a crater on fifth and main that sends them into a debate about how best to navigate it. 

zack says through it, trini says around it and kim says both options are terrible. 

they end up going around. 

only after attempting to go through it and trini watching as the pallet lurched forward and the pile of boxes, wrapped in industrial grade serran wrap, threaten to topple. 

“i told you,” she says “around.” 

the rare moment where alma has no smug comment to add, thinking the ‘i told you so’ was sufficient. 

still, by the time they get to the community centre they’re all sweating and hungry and grumpy. which is not the reception that the overjoyed volunteers manning the community centre were looking for. 

/let them carry it all the way here through that mess and see how they like it./ alma mutters as they finish dropping off the pallet supplies. 

zack hoists the empty wooden pallet onto his back with easy while trini complains to alma. “you did nothing?”

alma puts on those stupid big eyes of his as he reaches up on his legs and places his paws on her lower stomach. /carry me./

trini is about to retort with a well placed -hell no- when kimberly walks past grinning. “aww.” rami is back sheltering under her hair again with just his beak peeking out to look at the pair of them.

it’s a brief and fleeting comment and trini stares down at alma in spite of how red her face is. “i’ll carry you if you say nothing about that.”

/deal./

it’s an equally as hot, but not as long walk back to drop off the now unladen pallet jack. they run into a couple other groups of volunteers pushing shopping carts of boxes towards the community centre. but otherwise it’s empty and trini can’t help but remember *how* the destruction was caused. 

remembering rita. 

just thinking about her makes trini’s stomach clench. alma, in her arms, nudges his head under trini’s chin and purrs soft and low, the noise just rumbling in his chest. trini holds onto him tighter like he’s going to slip away from her. the feeling has faded with time and the ever repeating sound of trini backhanding rita into space but- 

separation is the ghost story that her parents told her when she was little. a bad dream that they awoke from and a medical impossibility they said. or so trini thought.

how does one sever your own soul?

alma grumbles in her arms and trini realizes she’s fallen behind the rest of them. 

she shakes her head, trying to distract herself from that particular and all too familiar train of thought. focusing instead on the sight of the red cross truck the next block up, the familiar sight of glaucus, and and of mr. stuart telling people they’re free to go home. 

it’s a welcome relief, neither of three of them sure they could had managed another trip across town. 

as they get closer, trini can see the younger kids out with their volunteering parents, staring at glaucus wide eyed and in awe. it’s not unusual to have a daemon the size that jason has but angel grove doesn’t have many of them. unless you counted that guy who lived on a boat at the docks, tethered to his whale daemon who slept underneath the water. that was more than an inconvenience than having glaucus stuffed in jason’s small room in the scott’s household.

trini hasn’t really considered what her life would have been like if alma had settled on something other than a lynx cat. though when she was younger and alma was still shifting it was fun to scare her mom with the possibility of alma settling on a tiger. 

“one pallet jack.” zack says, sounding as bored as he could possibly manage, leaving it standing next to mr. stuart who looks at the three of them and checks off their names. 

“alright, mr. taylor, ms. hart, ms. ortiz, you’re free to go. the city of angel grove thanks you for your help.” 

trini manages to wait until she’s turned around to roll her eyes, alma does not. luckily mr. stuart is already occupied with the next batch of volunteers are stepping forward. jason, billy and kimberly have congregated away from the main crowd, trini and zack walking over to join them.

they’re all drawn together naturally and annie and glaucus stick together with zack’s daemon running circles around the big bear. billy watches with a smile on his face with only the small glimmer of a yellow tail around his wrist hinting of his daemon’s presence. 

rami peeks out from kimberly’s hair and settles onto her shoulder in sight. /ask them./ 

trini rarely hears him speak because he seems to prefer whispering in kimberly’s ear but his voice something that trini can only describe as regal. every word seems to have enough time dedicated to it. he follows up his words by hopping off kimberly’s shoulder and onto the floor. alma shifts out of trini’s arms to follow. 

kimberly wears a bashful blush and twists her hands around the bracelets on her wrists. the metal ones clink together and kimberly stutters through an invitation. “i wanted to ask-”

trini raises an eyebrow. “i forgot my water bottle if that’s what you’re asking.”

“are you ever going to forget that?”

“hey i haven’t seen that bottle since you know.” alma walks through trini’s legs and back pretending not to be flustered about rami sitting next to him. 

“you threw me off a cliff.” trini supplies helpfully. 

“yeah,” kimberly says, a little quieter “that.” 

“it might still be floating around the pool.” trini shrugs “i haven’t seen it either.” 

“oh,” kim says, then, with rami nudging against her ankle subtly “well, do you, i’ve got food?” 

alma looks up at trini expectantly and trini raises an eyebrow like 

“you don’t even need it?” 

but turning to kimberly, trini says “yeah, sure, food.” with a soft smile she can’t even help “but, i really need a shower. and you know, my mom likes to check in. see if i’ve learnt my lesson about ripping lockers doors off.” trini smirks. 

“yeah, yeah sure.” kimberly doesn’t seem to process anything other than trini saying yes. she pushes back her hair as if she’s going to sweep it into a ponytail onto to let go and let it drop again. trini is equally distracted by that. 

alma swipes his paw at trini’s ankle but before trini can push him over into the dust kimberly grabs her hand. 

like holds her hand. 

alma looks between them and then at rami whose feathers are all puffed up like he’s proud just as kimberly pulls trini into a hug.

a hug.

safe contact. 

/gay/ alma pretends to clear his throat.

trini ignores that because despite how both of them have been moving pallets in the sun, and while trini feels covered in a layer of grime, kimberly still manages to smell nice with whatever fruity shampoo she uses. it makes trini’s head spin. 

“i’ll text you.” trini says “when i’m on my way over.” still caught up in the dying seconds of the hug where her hands are resting on kimberly’s back. kimberly’s hands fall only to trini’s biceps when they pull apart. 

“yeah, yes.” kimberly replies, smiling too brightly for someone who was up as early as she was. for detention. on a saturday. “just knock or y’know, window.”

trini nods and stuffs her hands in her pockets like if she contains them then kimberly won’t blindside her by holding them again.

just as she’s turning to walk away trini spots alma raising a paw and then patting rami on the beak, probably with more force than needed, as a goodbye.

they’re just out of earshot when trini looks down at alma. “i saw that.” and the little gleam in kimberly’s eye when rami flew up to her shoulder and whispered in her ear. 

/you saw nothing./ alma hisses and his tail twitches and he walks ahead of her the whole way home.

 

 

*


End file.
